The Pattonville High School Band is leaving today, Wednesday, April 2 for a five day trip to New York City, New York to compete in a high school band festival. The PHS band members are currently in the middle of a 19-hour bus ride in order to arrive in New York tomorrow, Thursday, April 3, afternoon. After which, they will go straight to see the Broadway rendition of The Phantom of The Opera. The members will also have plenty of time to sightsee around the city and visit places such as the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, and spend time in Time Square. Most importantly, their competitions will take place on Saturday, April 5 and they will stay for the awards ceremony before heading back home Saturday night.
Mr. Denny McFarland and the band members have extremely high hopes that they will compete to the best of their abilities and earn awards to add to their collection.
The band members have had the privilege of playing in many different venues around St. Louis, ranging from music clubs to the Powell Symphony Hall and they plan to add New York City to this list.
“It’s [going to New York] showing that music has a lot of different venues and that there are many different things that people can do with music. Plus it gets us out of concert-by-concert scheduling,” Senior member Denish Jaswal said when asked about the reasoning behind the trip.
In addition to going to playing at different venues around the city, the PHS band has gone on out of town trips for at least the past four years. In 2011, members were able to go to Atlanta, Georgia; in the summer before the 2012-2013 school year, they went to Hawaii; and last year they went to Chicago, Illinois.
“While New York probably won’t be able to live up to Hawaii, it should be really cool because we have an awesome itinerary planned,” Jaswal said when asked about how the trip to New York will compare to previous band trips.
One of the most talked about components of this trip is the transportation. The band members will have to endure a 19-hour bus trip in which three different bus drivers will be taking the wheel. While 19 hours on the road sounds like a very long time, there will be wi-fi for internet access available, plenty of people to talk to, and more than enough time to get some rest.
According to Senior band member Maurisa Langston, “I’m used to long car drives because my family used to visit Utah all the time and that’s a 21-hour trip. Plus I’ll probably be sleeping, talking to friends, and on my computer most of the time anyway.”
We want to wish a safe trip and good luck to our PHS Band members!
